Where should I go from here?

[Little Devil]

Basically Im a complete novice, I havent done any real art since school, 3 1/2 years ago and I never really found my teachers any help, feeling waylaid by their ideas and unable to communicate mine.

Now I reall want to get into art, I love the idea of photography, life drawing by hand and using the computer. I have ideas in my head but my skill is not good at all and I dont know where to start. Ive tried doing simple sketchs from my head, while being bored at uni, which arent bad, and also had a go at designing landscapes on 'bryce' (pc) but im not satisfied.

Basically what i want to do is be able to sit and draw a person, completely life like, but make them into demons, imps or fairies, not exactly original, but thats what I want.

If anyone could give any advice on where to start or a good way to develop it woulg be great.

And if this thread can help any other novices out there, all the better.

:scribble: 'It had the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover' :scribble:

[Carnifex]

train your eye.
this means get into a café,train station or wherever there are many people. depict them as correct as you manage.
do that everyday for some hours and you will notice that you're getting faster at doing these sketches. if the person moves away,stop drawing and start on the next one.
know your anatomy.
take some biology book or a book specifically focused on anatomy.
draw the bones muscles. MOST IMPORTANT: know how they interact with each other and why.
study animals.
as you say you want to create devils,imps and fairies you should know how to draw the various accesoires. this means draw goats,birds and whatever you need to get a good result. work on clothing also,'less you want your demons to run around naked.
be patient and take as much time as it needs in the beginning.
don't put yourself under stress by saying "i have this much time to do this and then i've got to be finished". this will only diminish your end results and frustrate you in the end.
take a look at the "finally finished section",go to the "helpful critiques" and click the "back to the basics" thread on top. there's more information on getting started.
have fun and hope to see something soon from you mate.:)

[Bence]

Carnifex that's a fuckin good advice for anyone. Thanks!!!(allright I know it was not meant for me but still pretty good advice which can help me a lot:D )

[Little Devil]

Ok, Ive started trying to sketch pictures out of an anatomy and figure drawing book, but I just cant seem to get my shading to work. unfortunately I dont have the facilities to post pics at the moment, but Im working on it.

My first problem is that my sketching pencils jump from B to 5B with nothing inbetween. (Not sure if have same pencil names in other countries, B is one softer than you would write with and 5B is one of the softest in the set)

However, this may not be a problem, my mum always drilled into me that a bad workman always blames his tools. Any coments?


My second problem is my sketching ability, at school I was taught a cross-hatching technique, which I could get to work when drawing a violin, but not on a face. Please help with shading techniques

:scribble: "You'll never shine if you dont glow" :scribble:

[Sterlingcrispin]

figuring out small things and then studying them helpfull , like, I'm not very good at drawing ears because, i dont understand how they work, so I try to look at alot of diffrent ears and draw them.

for shading check out

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=14119

its a good tut and it shows diffrent shading methods at the bottom

You could dry using the side of your pencil to make broad soft areas of value, then using a paper stump to blend further